Yuki Nagato
Yuki Nagato (長門有希 Nagato Yuki) is the third person to join the SOS Brigade. At first glance, she appears to be an introverted, taciturn bibliophile. She later reveals herself to Kyon as an alien created by the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, and possesses supernatural powers as a result. She was sent to North High to watch over Haruhi Suzumiya, and over the course of her time there she comes to develop insights into being a person, as well as emotions (according to Kyon). Appearance Yuki is very short for her "age" compared to the rest of her friends. She has short jagged purplish hair which never grows and golden brown eyes. She used to wear glasses but stopped after Kyon told her she looked better without them. Nagato rarely wears anything beyond her school uniform. Description Yuki Nagato is a humanoid interface with the appearance of an ordinary North High student. It is not clear which faction of the Integrated Data Sentient Entity she serves, though she has confirmed that she belongs to the "majority" faction and is not a member of a radical one. Nagato was created with limited social abilities, something she claims will affect her until she ceases functioning. She rarely speaks, often ignoring attempts to communicate, using gestures like nods, staring or pointing, or giving one word replies. Her voice is usually monotone. Nagato's facial expressions rarely change, and any such changes are minor. Careful observation is required to discern any emotional responses; Kyon is not necessarily correct in his observations. As a result, Nagato frequently acts "shy". For instance, she appeared unable to obtain a library card without Kyon's help. When interacting with people outside of the SOS Brigade, she frequently stares at the floor and either gives very short responses or says nothing at all, even if angry. For instance, when asked questions by Tsuruya, she first said nothing, but later responded; she reacted the same way in Live A Live when asked Haruhi's location by schoolmates. Her silent trait extends to interactions with members of the SOS Brigade; when Haruhi Suzumiya wanted to throw out her books from the SOS Brigade headquarters, Nagato could do little more than glare at her. Nagato has become increasingly more willing to communicate with the SOS Brigade, especially Kyon and Mikuru Asahina. This is a trait not shared by some other Integrated Data Entity humanoid interfaces. Ryouko Asakura has showed a wide range of social abilities, even taking part in events not related to her mission. However, she still appeared to have a limited vocal range and set of facial expressions. Nagato has shown a poor understanding of emotions, especially her own. She attributed her actions in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya to "erroneous files accumulated in her memory database". When pushed to describe her own emotions, she usually says nothing or gives an understated answer, such as "relatively" enjoying books and being "a little" disappointed at being rejected. She rarely expresses opinions, and these are usually based on those of the Integrated Data Sentient Entity (such as describing a data organism as "primitive", describing human computers in a similar manner, or commenting positively on interactions with the Sky Canopy Domain despite the negative effect on her). Nagato has made repeated attempts to relieve Kyon's concerns. She often tells him "don't worry" when she is injured or something strange panics him and can tell if someone is disturbed. She also behaves in a manner which would please Haruhi (such as telling her that her cooking was "delicious" or setting up a mystery in Mystérique Sign). However, her analyses of human behavior are often flawed, being based on incomplete information. Nagato seems to have little interest in generic human activities and only participates in events dictated by Haruhi Suzumiya. She steps out of this to protect the timeline or to prevent the creation of closed space (she participated much more forcefully in baseball once closed space was created, upon Itsuki Koizumi's prompting). This behavior extended to her method of decorating her apartment (she didn't before The Disappearance) and her lack of desire to engage in Literature Club activities. Nagato is very fond of reading and later developed computer programming as a hobby. She has occasionally demonstrated interest in human activities, such as watching fireworks. Nagato appears to have a low opinion of herself. She was willing to endure prolonged isolation for her mission when watching over Kyon and Mikuru Asahina for three years in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and made little effort to break free from the time loop of Infinite Eight. In The Dissociation she stated that she would protect the rest of the SOS Brigade, but Kyon said "having no concern for yourself is behavior I absolutely will not allow." Nagato poorly conceals her inhuman nature although her normal appearance helps her avoid suspicion. For instance, when referring to someone by name, she always uses their full name. (When speaking to someone, she does not use their name, simply referring to them as "you". She referred to the Computer Society President as a "male student", despite having heard his name from Emiri Kimidori. Other humanoid interfaces have not demonstrated this behavior.) Kyon even noted that she doesn't blink often or simply stares into space. Biography According to Yuki, she was created three years prior to meeting Kyon and Haruhi, with the purpose of observing humanity and its ability to evolve in intelligence, and more importantly, Haruhi Suzumiya and the data flare that she created around that time. To Yuki, Haruhi is the key to evolution. Yuki is stationed in an apartment complex where several other Humanoid Interfaces are implied to live, in room 708, alone. Yuki remains in standby mode until "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody", when a future version of Mikuru and Kyon come to visit her, telling her that they are from three years later and require her assistance to return to their time. After synchronizing with her future self, Yuki confirms them as acquaintances, and puts them in a room for three years, freezing time within in order to help them return. Meanwhile, another future Mikuru and Kyon come, informing her that in three years the world will be altered and that she needs to help them. Knowing that she is the one responsible for changing the world, she gives Mikuru and Kyon the tools needed to change her astray self back to normal. Three years later, Yuki attends North High and becomes the only member of the Literary Club. This becomes a selling point for Haruhi, who immediately uses her room with only one occupant. Haruhi eventually comes to use Yuki as a part of the Brigade because of the mystérique around her. Yuki is the first to tell Kyon about her identity as an alien; Kyon thus trusts her the most out of the three supernatural brigade members. During an early SOS Brigade trip, Kyon took her to the library and got her a card, which seemed to give her happy memories. When Ryoko Asakura tries to kill Kyon in the hopes that it would cause Haruhi to create a data explosion, Yuki saves his life, but forgets to repair her glasses, the first sign that she is fallible. Yuki is also one of the people who gives a clue to Kyon about how to get out of the closed space created by Haruhi: "sleeping beauty". Yuki stages Emiri Kimidori in the "Mystérique Sign" incident as a pretend client in order to save a bunch of people trapped in an alternate dimension due to a logo Haruhi makes, in order to keep Haruhi entertained. She continually pulls strings from behind the scenes in a similar way Itsuki does. During the filming for "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00", Haruhi accidentally causes the Mikuru Beam to become real, and thus Yuki is forced to take a large role in preventing Haruhi noticing by blocking the Mikuru Beam with her hand and injecting nanomachines into Mikuru (biting her) to prevent it from materializing again. In "The Day of Sagittarius", Yuki is revealed to have somewhat of a passion for computers and hacking, something Kyon does not fail to notice. He supported her participating in occasional Computer Research Society activities over Haruhi's objections. According to the Computer Research Society's president in The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya, she is very helpful and even creates a new OS that everything is compatible with. The Disappearance Arc .]] Yuki's most prominent moment is in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, in which due to "errors" (which Kyon classifies as "emotions") Yuki steals some of Haruhi's powers to create an alternate universe in which Haruhi, Itsuki, Yuki, and Mikuru are normal humans, Haruhi and Itsuki do not attend North High, Ryoko is a student, and there is no SOS Brigade. Kyon notices a stark difference in her actions up until that point, mainly because Yuki had been anticipating this would happen and was unable to prevent it. In the alternate world, Yuki is simply a shy, introverted girl, but clearly has true emotions because she shows fear when Kyon first bursts into her room. As she still lives alone, this becomes a problem because she rarely gets the will to eat and Ryoko must act as a concerned neighbor and bring her food. Yuki clearly takes an interest in Kyon, as she invites him to the Literature Club and tries to get him to stay for dinner by pulling on his sleeve. Kyon eventually turns the universe back to normal, after realizing that Yuki preserved his memories of the former world because she trusted his judgment and wanted him to make the choice. The Integrated Data Sentient Entity threatens to delete Yuki; however, Kyon blackmails the Entity into keeping Yuki alive. The Aftermath Afterward, Yuki places a limit on some of her abilities. In "Love at First Sight", one of Kyon's middle school classmates, named Nakagawa, makes a love confession to Yuki and asks her to marry him in ten years. Yuki declines, declaring that her self-control mechanism will be unable to be stable after ten years, but remains curious about Nakagawa. As it turns out, Nakagawa did not see Yuki but instead the Integrated Data Sentient Entity, and became confused by it. Yuki thus removes Nakagawa's ability to see the Entity. When Kyon asks if it was a pity that the first person to confess to her turns out to be a fake, Yuki replies that it was, "a little bit". In "Snow Mountain Syndrome", the Sky Canopy Dominion attempts to communicate with Yuki by creating an alternate dimension with a snow storm and interfering with her ability to connect to the Entity. Eventually, they cause Yuki to fall into a fever, and Yuki is forced to create a program with an ambiguous answer that eventually releases the Brigade. Yuki plays an important part in The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya, besides making chocolates for Kyon and Itsuki along with the other girls. Yuki helps Kyon and Mikuru fill out their missions set by the older Mikuru, and even receives a letter herself from the older Mikuru. She reveals that she has blocked out her ability to transfer her consciousness through time, and thus believes she is more "free" in this sense (although Kyon senses she is depressed from "knowing too much"). In "Editor in Chief★Straight Ahead!", Yuki writes a cryptic, somewhat poetic horror prose that implies confusion about her meaning in the world. In "Wandering Shadow", Yuki detects the presence of silicon data lifeforms in neighborhood dogs and manages to transplant them safely into Shamisen. At the beginning of her fourth year (The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya), Yuki invites new students to her Literature Club with a "speech" called "Neurological studies on the incomplete transmission of information and feelings through words" but fails to invite any new members. She meets Kuyou Suou and has an angry confrontation with her. Line At the end, Yuki claims to have caught the flu on the phone to Haruhi, which seems impossible to Kyon given that she is a Data Humanoid Interface. This is possibly due to the Sky Canopy Dominion, the aforementioned silicon lifeforms or even the Integrated Data Sentient Entity itself. In The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya, the SOS Brigade visits her at her house. Kyon talks to her and finds that she has been sick since the café incident. During a text-message chat with her, Kyon finds that she is becoming more and more delirious, and that the Sky Canopy Dominion is directly responsible for her sickness; she eventually leaves the message "need to sleep" (Kyon is relieved at this, seeing this statement as making her more humanlike), although she comments that she does not have the same social "tools" Ryouko had (in short, she is defining her shyness). Emiri Kimidori later reveals that Yuki is trying to contact the Sky Canopy Dominion at the moment, as they first contacted her (because Yuki is closest to Haruhi), possibly being the cause for her sickness; however, the IDSE will do nothing about it, and the IDSE may be the ones who make the decision whether she may recover or not. Powers Yuki Nagato has special powers being a humanoid interface. Physical Powers Nagato has displayed superhuman strength, agility, and stamina. She appears to be immune to pain. Nagato has displayed unusual minor abilities, such as holding her breath for a very long time, not suffering sunburn despite her very pale skin, and being immune to the effects of alcohol. She also appears to be immune to human diseases, so any time she does get ill, it's seen as a serious attack on her. Nagato's reaction time is fast enough for her to repeatedly block several laser beams from Mikuru's "Mikuru Beam" attack. Nagato seems to have "odd" food requirements. Sometimes she eats at normal speed (such as during The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya), but later she often ate at rapid speed (seen in Lone Island Syndrome). Kyon became so used to this he became worried when Nagato ate slowly in Snow Mountain Syndrome. In The Intrigues she ate a triple-sized portion of food during a regular meal. Sensory Powers Nagato has very keen eyesight, and her glasses seem to have been props, since she stopped wearing them after Kyon complimented her on how she looked without glasses. She has demonstrated the ability to discern body temperature, detect directions, sense laser beams and subatomic particles and even determine their mass. She can sense other data organisms and all manners of strange phenomena, but the ability is not infallible. (For instance, she could not immediately determine that a pair of dogs had been infected with a data parasite, and took time to determine that Nakagawa was an esper.) Nagato could "scan" a highly-advanced computer which contained information about time travel. Mental Abilities As shown in Live Alive, Nagato seems to be able to memorize the piece of music by looking at it once. In the same episode she is also able to play the guitar without any problems. As shown in Endless Eight, Yuki Nagato has the ability to remember things that are supposed to be erased by being a part of the Integrated Data Sentient Entity. However, she is not infallible; she once forgot to reconstruct her glasses after they were broken in a battle. Nagato could "intuit" data she had collected from a damaged advanced computer. In the anime, she seemingly has difficulties with some distinctly human objects, such as computer mice and rifles. She demonstrated difficulty in drawing pictures of faces in Snow Mountain Syndrome. Nagato's multitasking abilities gave her a great advantage when playing Saggitarius III. She was able to control 20 groups while countering a hack attempt simultaneously. Data Powers As a humanoid interface, Nagato has numerous powers, seemingly enhanced when in a space under data jurisdiction. Many but not all of her powers require her to use "incantations" (in which she speaks a computer language very quickly) or arm movements (best seen in The Disappearance). In the first light novel, this speech was translated as Structured Query Language (SQL): "SELECT serial_code FROM database WHERE code='data' ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data HAVING terminate_mode" Nagato can manipulate "chance", such as determining who takes the "long straw", as demonstrated most clearly in The Intrigues. Nagato can manipulate the properties of the environment, such as when she modified a baseball bat to only hit home runs, modified a baseball's movements, or destroyed a section of fence. Kyon refers to this as "bogus magic". She can modify some of her own properties (such as her weight/mass, which Kyon noticed when taking her and Haruhi on a bike ride). Nagato appears to have the ability to teleport, which she demonstrated in the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya when breaking into space under data jurisdiction. However, she seemingly could not enter Haruhi's sealed space. She used a similar ability in the running contest in The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya. The way she described her ability to Kyon made it seem like teleportation, but she still performed worse than Haruhi Suzumiya in the contest. She later used a similar ability to escape an irate person (while the rest of the Brigade had to run) and may have used the ability when blocking the Mikuru Beam. In Mystérique Sign she used a similar ability to enter a data organism's dimension, which bore similarities both to closed space and data jurisdiction. Nagato can use her abilities to reconstruct her body (healing from damage). This appears to be an active process, and she has not used the ability while using other data abilities (she put her repair request in queue). Nagato once healed Mikuru from a knockout poison and was able to at least partially heal a wounded Kyon, making it look like he had fallen down the stairs. Nagato can directly communicate with computers and Kyon's cell phone, even when the latter was trapped in sealed space. She has only rarely demonstrated this ability and has only been seen using it to communicate with Kyon. She was able to program Mikuru's TPDD through touch. Nagato has demonstrated the ability to create a "cover story" with her data manipulation abilities. Nagato can create a barrier which renders people invisible and inaudible. Nagato had to dissolve the barrier to take action. She may be able to alter computers with her abilities, having created a "do-it-yourself" computer for the Computer Research Society using an operating system that made no sense to the Computer Research members, and could use her "magic touch" to fix software bugs. She can communicate with the Integrated Data Entity in order to gain information and permission to use otherwise forbidden techniques (such as nullifying Asakura's data link). Sometimes the entity will not give her the information she seeks, however (such as when she tried to get answers to Kyon's questions about life after death). Nagato was able to transfer some of her autonomous judgment capabilities to Emiri Kimidori when she fell ill in The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya. She can modify human memories, an ability she revealed in The Disappearance, when she told Kyon that if he'd known what she was going to do, she would have removed his memories. In Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Nagato "froze" Kyon and Mikuru outside of time for three years. She later stated (in The Disappearance) that she could not leave them unattended while they were in this state. Nagato used "dissolution factors" as an attack form to "dissolve" Asakura. The first time, they were fighting in data jurisdiction space, the second time she erased Asakura in The Intrigues. Nagato can apparently initiate some form of "magic attack" outside of data jurisdiction. In The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, Haruhi ordered Nagato to attack Mikuru with magic, full blast, and Nagato hesitated, unsure if she should follow the command. (She elected not to.) Nagato can alter the weather, revealed in The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya when Kyon asked her to make it rain. She was reluctant to do so, however, as that would alter the weather patterns for a long time thereafter. (Kyon decided not to ask her to do so.) Nagato also has the ability to "steal" some of Haruhi's powers and use them to her advantage, something she did in the Disappearance arc as a result of "errors". Her powers altered the previous 365 days and created a massive timequake. Data Jurisdiction Powers Nagato's powers appear to be expanded while within data jurisdiction. Nagato once entered another interface's data jurisdiction space, repairing it from the damage, and another time she used an "incantation" to enter similar space created by a more primitive data organism, which bore some similarity to both data jurisdiction and sealed space. (That space was automatically repaired when the organism was defeated.) In a data jurisdiction space, she was able to create "icicles" from the surrounding structure and use them to attack an enemy. She could use this ability in "reverse" to counter Ryoko Asakura's similar attacks. with a repulsion field]] In the anime version of Mystérique Sign, Nagato demonstrated the ability to create a repulsion field which damaged (but did not destroy) a primitive data lifeform, in a space created by that organism. Nagato has shown the ability to manipulate data links, enabling her to destroy or manipulate data-based organisms. She has demonstrated the ability to reconstruct areas under data jurisdiction which had been damaged. Item Powers In The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, Nagato injected nanomachines into Mikuru via bite to prevent her from using the Mikuru Beam. In The Disappearance, she also injected Kyon with a stealth operation screen and a protective field to protect him from hazardous effects of time travel. In each case, the bite marks swiftly faded. In The Disappearance, Nagato was able to transform her glasses into an injection system, which she referred to as "compounding". When Kyon complained, she transformed it into a device resembling a "science fiction" needle gun. Precognition Nagato has displayed at least limited precognition. She had at least some foreknowledge of Ryoko Asakura's attack and Kyon being trapped in sealed space in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (saying that Kyon would be "first" if the radical faction moved and telling him to "be careful" before he was trapped). In the anime version of Live Alive she gave a long series of seemingly accurate (but mundane) predictions. Until the Disappearance arc, Yuki has the ability to transport her consciousness through time by "synchronization"; however, she herself blocks this off after the arc in order to prevent errors (according to Yuki, this gives her more options for the future as well). In The Intrigues she revealed that she had given up the ability, which meant she did not know why a time-displaced version of Mikuru Asahina was visiting the "current" time plane. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan Yuki also stars in the unofficial spin-off manga The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki chan. Her appearance in this manga is based on the alternate Yuki from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, but Kyon's memory of the "real world" was erased, so he didn't activate the Emergency Escape Program. While she appears to be human, Yuki still possesses incredible intellect and sometimes seems to think like a computer. After getting injured in a car accident, she began acting like her previous self, and gained at least some of her original memories. Relationships with SOS Brigade members Haruhi Suzumiya Yuki is not shown to ever have opinions of Haruhi beyond what the Integrated Data Sentient Entity believes. Yuki follows Haruhi's orders (although generally following Kyon's orders in preference to hers) and sometimes flatters her (eg calling her cooking delicious, ensuring she had no conflicts with schedules assigned by Haruhi, making it clear that she and Kyon had not been on a date at the library, etc). Yuki occasionally displayed irritation with Haruhi's demands (such as glaring at her when Haruhi said she wanted to throw her books out from the SOS Brigade HQ, or protesting that she didn't need to be carried after getting sick in the Snow Mountain Incident) but has never openly defied Haruhi without Kyon's support. Yuki is the only member of the Brigade who stood by and took no action when Kyon attempted to strike Haruhi and when Haruhi abducted Kyon into her own private dimension, Yuki relayed the message that the IDSE wanted Haruhi back, but that she herself wanted Kyon back. Kyon Yuki treats Kyon as a superior figure, even naively following his "orders" (such as, during Mystérique Sign, she misinterpreted something he said and "froze" in place until he told her she could move), and followed his orders when he limited her power during the Day of Sagittarius incident. Over time, Yuki became more willing to communicate with Kyon. In The Melancholy she stared at Kyon and Mikuru playing Othello until Kyon invited her to play, and only asked Kyon to take her to the library again by computer message, but by The Intrigues she was willing to ask him favors (such as not talking to her alternate variant). That Yuki is not native to Earth is a fairly closely held secret, so Kyon functions as a native guide who is not beholden to one of the other two factions around Haruhi. In fact, she actually seems to prefer to take his advice over Haruhi's, as seen in The Day of Sagittarius, when the Computer Club President asked Yuki to participate in Computer Club activities, Haruhi immediately tried to decline the offer for Yuki, but Kyon told her to do what she wanted, so she chose to take the Computer Club President up on his offer. Yuki is very protective of Kyon (she sees protecting him and Haruhi as her primary mission), and believes him personally to be important. Yuki also trusts Kyon's judgment very much, as when she creates a new world in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, she preserves his memories of the old world in order to give him the choice of which world to keep. Yuki has become somewhat more independent of Kyon as the light novel series continued. For instance, in Mystérique Sign she even accidentally followed his orders, but in The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya she refused to tell him what Haruhi's surprise was, and in Editor in Chief★Straight Ahead! she refused to let him see the story she was writing, even when he asked her to. (Instead, she hid the story and eventually glared at him when he kept trying to peek at it.) Kyon, in turn, has occasionally taken Yuki for granted, such as not going to the library with her when she asked him to in The Melancholy and several times inviting and then "dumping" her in The Intrigues. (He did so a second time, even after apologizing.) Yuki has sometimes denied Kyon information. For instance, in the timeline of The Astonishment, she declared Yasumi Watahashi to be "less than nothing". Mikuru Asahina Mikuru is intimidated by Yuki's powers so they aren't close and rarely talk. The older Asahina seems to still have such problems. In The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya Yuki occasionally spoke politely to Mikuru (e.g. telling her not to do dishes, as she was a guest) and spent a night staring at her. Mikuru told Kyon that Yuki wanted to be more like her, but Yuki has denied this. Mikuru also noted that Yuki was upset about Kyon not staying with her in the library, and told Kyon to apologize. Itsuki Koizumi Yuki is not shown to ever have opinions of Itsuki beyond what the Integrated Data Sentient Entity believes. She occasionally communicates with him about theories or queries, but never has real conversations. Koizumi is the only person who understands her when she gives a complicated answer; she often has to simplify things for Kyon. Koizumi complained that she never responded to his inquiries about her powers, and he had to gain information from other TFEIs instead (who, in turn, tell his Organization very little). Koizumi has occasionally supported Yuki in various activities, such as suggesting he would help her find hobbies beyond reading (Mystérique Sign short story) and supporting Kyon when he gave Nagato permission to visit the Computer Society (politely put over Suzumiya's objections). Nagato's 100 Books KEY: *(JP) Japanese books *(I) Koizumi Itsuki's choice *(Y) Nagato Yuki's choice Non-Japanese books Section Japanese books section Trivia *Yuki has several parallels to Rei Ayanami of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Both characters are depicted as being generally silent, emotionless, and unsociable. Their names are also similar: "Yuki" means "snow" in Japanese, while "Rei" may be read as "ice". "Nagato" and "Ayanami" were also names of Japanese warships in World War II; the former being a battleship, and the latter a destroyer. *"Nagato" means "Gate Master", a possible reference to her relationship to the Integrated Data Sentient Entity. *Nagato is in fact about 1,319 years old when one takes into account the time she's spent outside of Haruhi's universe. Reference Notes es:Yuki Nagato Category:Humanoid Interface Category:Characters